Summary

• Ghostlight brings Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to life in a unique way, mirroring personal struggles with family dynamics and grief.
• The film explores themes of expression, grief, and love through a community theater production, impacting the real-life family of actors.
• Kelly O'Sullivan's directorial debut showcases the alchemy of collaboration, offering a meta-theatrical approach to its adaptation with heartfelt performances.

A William Shakespeare classic is brought to life in a unique new way with Ghostlight. The indie drama revolves around Dan, a melancholic construction worker whose relationships with his wife and daughter are straining under his aimless feelings of his life. When Dan finds a new spark of energy by joining a local community theater performance of Romeo and Juliet, Dan ultimately finds the themes of the Shakespeare tale resonating too close to home and begins reevaluating what's most important to him.

Ghostlight hails from creative duo Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson, who previously teamed for the 2019 dramedy Saint Frances, in which the former also starred. O'Sullivan makes her feature directorial debut with the new movie, sharing the chair with Thompson. The duo have assembled a cast of real-life family, Keith Kupferer, Tara Mallen and Katherine Mallen Kupferer, to play Dan and his wife and daughter, all of whom bring plenty of heart to their characters and meaningfully capture their family dynamic.

In honor of the movie's South by Southwest premiere, Screen Rant interviewed O'Sullivan, Thompson, Kupferer, Mallen and Mallen Kupferer to discuss Ghostlight, its uniquely meta approach to adapting Romeo and Juliet, how playing a family affected the real-life family of actors, and an update on the directors' next project.

How Real-Life Events Impacted Ghostlight's Meta Romeo & Juliet Twist

Screen Rant: Ghostlight has a beautiful story about a family that is grieving the loss of their son, and especially a father who will not let himself grieve, until a community theater production of Romeo and Juliet changes his life. Kelly, I'm so fascinated by the meta-theatrical aspect. We're exploring grief through a story about someone exploring grief through a story. Did you first say, "I want to write around Romeo and Juliet?" Or did that come from you dealing with Dan's story?

Kelly O'Sullivan: It started with Romeo and Juliet, and then his real-life events kind of sprung from there. I knew I wanted to have a character who desperately needed a place for expression find that in theater. And then, when I was thinking about what the family might have gone through, Romeo and Juliet just fit so perfectly, and I had been wanting to explore some of the themes in Romeo and Juliet. And as I've gotten older, the story is way less romantic to me, and far more tragic. I wanted to explore how your perspective changes with age, and feelings about love change as you get older. So, it started from there, and then the events sort of sewed themselves into the story.

I love that. I remember first reading Romeo and Juliet in middle school and being like, "I'm so angry. Everyone loved this romance." So I was like, "I am Dan." So, Alex, what was it like for you to work with Kelly as co-director this time rather than actor/writer?

Alex Thompson: It's interesting, it was actually very similar to working on Saint Frances, which we made together, five, six years ago, and it was Kelly's script, Kelly led the film. So, there was a great deal of attention paid to just honoring the alchemy that was on the page, and so we had that sort of collaborative, egoless relationship. We sort of brought the same energy to this, but I think it was better in a lot of ways, because since Kelly was on this equal playing field, and we both had sort of similar agencies, I could maybe push a little more, she could push a little more. We both, I think, kind of felt like we had equal hands in the process, so it was just really nice. No complaints. [Chuckles]

Speaking of pushing those boundaries, Keith, I feel like in a lot of the movie, we're dealing with a Richter scale of Dan's emotions and whether he's gonna explode at this moment. Is he gonna hold it in? Can you talk about navigating that line, and did you ever surprise yourself with his rage?

Keith Kupferer: I think, as far as modulating it, Kelly and Alex were instrumental in that, just how we sort of navigated his journey, as far as releasing the grief, or the anger in certain moments, and not to get there before the end of the film. Surprising myself with my anger, no, unfortunately, it's my baseline. [Laughs]

Well, that is why you're perfect for the role. On the other hand, Sharon is really holding this family together, and she's holding herself together. She wants to be able to grieve, she wants to express herself, but she does not give him that space. Can you talk about approaching a character like that, and the relief of finally getting to?

Tara Mallen: Yeah, I think that is also a tribute to the beautiful writing in the script. And Sharon has that wonderful moment after the deposition, where she gets to say that to Dan. "That I haven't had space to put any of that." I think that was, for both Keith and I, something we talked about through the process, was how to make sure that we were keeping the lid on things. And when could we let it bubble up.

And Kelly and Alex were really great in reminding us to keep the tension, even in some of the lighter scenes early on. Obviously, we shot out of sequence, [they were] reminding us that that tension always had to be there, bubbling underneath, and that, "When was the moment that we could let it kind of come up?" It's hard as an actor to kind of walk around for a month holding it. It definitely can make you a little depressed, but we were really well-supported, and being the CEO of a family is a role I'm accustomed to.

I love that, the CEO of the family. Katherine, I love what a firecracker Daisy is, and I know, as a youth in theater once, parents can sometimes be like backup directors for you. How does that change or evolve when they are also your co-stars?

Katherine Mallen Kupferer: It doesn't change at all. Why are you making that face?! [Laughs] I think that in some other things, I have, sometimes, issues understanding what I need to do, or where I need to make changes. I think Alex and Kelly really helped, but also sometimes, my mom and my dad would pull me off, and talk to me, and tell me what to do. My mom likes to make me — you definitely told me what to do. But I think it was helpful having them. It's always helpful, they're always the ones helping me with my auditions and stuff like that. Especially my mom, my mom's my acting coach, pretty much.

When you're watching actors play actors, how does the scene that they're portraying kind of evolve, like when they're in production? Or when Dan is in Romeo and Juliet, and you have this whole community theater situation? How different does that end up being than what you guys first put down?

Kelly O'Sullivan: We collaborated with people who we knew would do these characters justice. We didn't want anybody who would make fun of the characters, because there's a lot of making fun of actors. And this community theater could be a place where you mock actors. So, something that we talked about early on is we said, "Let them be good." Like, some of my favorite actors are not famous, are working in small theaters, and they're giving it their all. So, we decided to cast people who would let themselves be good.

And of course, they have moments, as really skilled actors, of letting themselves be a little bit less skilled, which I think is one of the most difficult things you can do as an actor is to strip away some of your own skill. Like, Keith, for instance, is so brilliant in the way that he evolves his performance, that Dan becomes a better actor as he goes. And I think it's an incredibly difficult thing they do, and we didn't have anything to do with it other than just say, like, "Ultimately, let them be good." But they found their way into those incredible performances.

Alex Thompson: There's also a good example of that, it's Mercutio's death scene. Because that scene contains Kathryn and Keith both get to play to the house, and then they are also playing to each other, and to the other actors on stage in moments. And then, in the final moments, those scenes as Mercutio was dying, it's 100% for camera, and 100% for the audience in the movie theater. The modulation of that was really impressive to watch, and really fun to play with.

Acting As A Family Made For "Really Fun Dinner Conversation" For The Lead Cast

As a family going home together at the end of the day, does that make you more conscious or freer when you're getting into some of these intense family fight scenes?

Tara Mallen: We've worked together a lot, and Keith and I met doing a play 30 something years ago. I feel like we function as a family really well when we're engaged on a creative project. So it gives us something to talk about, it's really fun dinner conversation, so I think it makes our lives richer.

Katherine Mallen Kupferer: More exciting. [Laughs]

Tara Mallen: From my perspective, Kelly and Alex gave us the gift of a lifetime. Getting to work on this film was really one of the most magical things, not just for me as an actor, but to get to share that with Keith and Katherine was really, unbelievably special.

I love that. Katherine, another very wonderful gift for me was getting to hear your pipes in a karaoke scene. When is the debut album coming out?

Katherine Mallen Kupferer: I have to say, right now, in my theater class, I'm singing backup.

Who did this?

Katherine Mallen Kupferer: Well, the thing is, the singing in the movie might not be all me. [Chuckles]

Alex Thompson: It's a mix of a lot of different takes.

Katherine Mallen Kupferer: Some that aren't me. [Laughs]

Kelly O'Sullivan: That's right. Yeah. But I mean, it's incredible. Katherine did an incredible, incredible job. Ultimately, we decided that we wanted a voice that was like, "Oh, she's gonna go be on Broadway as a musical theater singer." So, we ended up using a little bit of a mix of musical theater actors' voices. But I will say, on the day, Katherine was incredible. And then something that I loved about her performance was Daisy is all about the joy of performing. And that's 100% Katherine. That's not something that could be mixed with anything else. So, I think the performance is really, really beautiful.

Alex Thompson: Nothing, technically, was working that day. I was so stressed, and I remember when Katherine started in, by 15 takes in or something, I had a smile on my face. Everyone was clapping and laughing. It was a great gift. It's a great gift to work with all these actors.

Tara Mallen: In the smelliest bar! [Laughs]

Kelly O'Sullivan: It was horrible! I was pregnant at the time, and so smells are so intense, and I just remember being like, "Don't barf, don't barf."

Alex Thompson: Our newborn is smoking already, because of that. He's got a total dependency. It's really sad. It's weird because the cigarette is so big compared to his body. [Laughs]

Tara Mallen: They had to keep the bar open.

Kelly O'Sullivan: Yeah, there were slot machines in the front. They were like, "You can film here, just don't mess with the slot machines." So the entire time, people who were gambling would come back and check us out, and then go pee.

Alex Thompson: No food at the bar, otherwise the bathroom situation would have been a lot worse. [Laughs]

Ghostlight Continues The Family's Growth As Actors

Oh my god, that's true. Keith, on a very different note, much like Dan is so personally affected by participating in Romeo and Juliet, have you ever had a moment in your theatrical or cinematic experience where what you were working on really helped clarify something for you in your life?

Keith Kupferer: Great question. You know, that's interesting. Well, no.

Thank you for your honesty. You could have said something there, but you just went with the truth.

Keith Kupferer: I don't know if it's true. I don't know if it's true, I just think that in the theatrical productions I've been in, the ones that I thought were top-notch and that I considered my work was where I wanted it to be. I think there was a certain clarity in my, my journey as an actor, perhaps the growth of what I've been able to do.

And I know that sounds like some a----le actor talk. But yeah, you learn about yourself as a performer as you do certain scripts. There have been a handful that, I would say, I was really proud of, because most of the time, you're just doing stuff to get your health weeks or whatever.

Tara Mallen & Katherine Mallen Kupferer: Okay. [Laughs]

Keith Kupferer: You want the truth? That's the truth? They're not all this. [Laughs]

Tara Mallen: I have a rebuttal. I will say, I believe that there have been times in our lives — and I believe this is true for Keith too, because I've seen it in his work — where a certain role comes along, because the universe sends it to you, because you need it. Whether that's because there's something you're struggling with in your own life, and certainly, in Shakespeare, in the giant, universal themes of Shakespeare — I remember I was doing a production of Lear, right when my parents were sort of deciding who was going to split up our farm between my sister and my brother and myself.

I have a very tight family, but those deep, deep jealousies and lack of confidence that your parents love you equally were very relevant within the work that I was doing on that production. I remember Keith did a production of a play called Good People, this very, very beautiful play.

Kelly O'Sullivan: You were unbelievable in that play.

Tara Mallen: Right? So, his journey, even to audition for that role, his inner lack of confidence that anyone would ever buy him as a doctor was so parallel to the character's journey. And I felt like that was, for him, a really meaningful experience at that moment in his life when he really needed it. So, I have to say you're wrong.

That was a beautiful response. Lastly, but not leastly, I know you guys had a project you were working on before that was put aside. Where are we on that now with two successes in the books?

Kelly O'Sullivan: Trying to make it happen. I mean, that's the story of independent filmmaking that it's like sometimes, every time you have the boulder at the bottom of the mountain, and you're trying to push it up the hill — and it was gonna happen — the strikes happened and cast fell through. But I really do — and I'm agnostic, I don't believe in much — think there was a little bit of believing people believe in people. That's true.

But I do think there was a little bit of serendipity and magic with this production, because it all came together so quickly. We pivoted, and we were like, "Let's just make Ghostlight now," and Alex made it happen, and then incredible actors came aboard, and there was something about the momentum of it. And you always say not being precious with it. That made us all just act on instinct, and the alchemy that happened because of it, I think, was part of its story. It's part of the creation of it.

Alex Thompson: We're shooting in the fall. It's gonna happen. Putting it in the universe. Screen Rant manifestation.

About Ghostlight

When melancholic construction worker Dan finds himself drifting from his wife and daughter, he discovers community and purpose in a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet. As the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life, he and his family are forced to confront a personal loss.

Ghostlight aired at SXSW and Sundance, but has yet to be given a wide release date.

Source: Screen Rant Plus